At a recent parent-teacher conference, my son’s teacher voiced his struggle in reading my son’s handwriting. This got me thinking about whether and how technology could assist my son and others like him. In consideration of an educational tablet app that enables people to improve their handwriting, I came across two Handwriting Recognition As A Service (HRAAS) APIs. One is free using Google Input Tools, and one is paid from Vision Objects.

I’m still waiting for Vision Objects to get back to me about a request for more information on their products. Unlike almost every other software company these days, they don’t seem to expose documentation on their products to the public. They want to know who you are and some details about your product before they let you see their APIs.

As for Google, I installed the Google Input Tools for Chrome extension, and I was able to sniff their XHR traffic by debugging the extension. I wrote a “J” in their writing area (using the mouse with Chrome on a PC) as depicted here: